


Flame

by notsafeforowls



Series: Discord Prompts/From the Swamp [7]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pyromania
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28182426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsafeforowls/pseuds/notsafeforowls
Summary: Mick doesn’t mean to end up sitting in front of the fire
Series: Discord Prompts/From the Swamp [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982155
Kudos: 15





	Flame

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt 'flame.'

Mick doesn’t mean to end up sitting in front of the fire. One minute he’s staring at the ceiling, listening to Nate snore and trying not to hear the fire crackling on the other side of the room, and the next minute he’s sitting on the floor a few feet away from it.

He should put it out. It wouldn’t take very much snow from outside to do so. He doesn’t want to end up setting the room on fire. But Mick can’t tear his eyes away from the barely there flames flickering weakly in the bottom of the old fireplace. He’s close enough that he can feel the heat radiating from the flames.

It makes him think of burning buildings. Mick can recognise the blunt edge of the obsession that refuses to build in his mind. He can’t remember the last time it went all the way, the last time he lost control and ended up standing in front of a building that was already halfway to the ground. Not since the Time Masters. They’d knocked something wrong, or maybe knocked something _right_ , and now the flames don’t distract him the same way.

There’s no longer that obsession that used to build until he couldn’t think of anything else.

It’s a relief. But, sitting in an abandoned house at two in the morning, it’s terrifying as well.

He could grab some of the old newspapers they’re using as kindling, build the fire until it consumes the entire house. He could grab some snow from outside and kill it before it can grow. He could do nothing. Even after four years, the choice is still alien to Mick.

Mick doesn’t realise that Nate’s awake until Nate sits down beside him. His sweater’s pulled down over his hands, a futile effort to ward off the cold, and the pattern from one of the ugly couches is etched into one cheek.

“I know I said that we were going to leave early, but I didn’t mean this early,” he says conversationally, rubbing at his eyes. “I don’t think any of the stores around here are even open before nine.” Nate picks at a loose thread on the cuff of one sleeve before he adds, “Want to talk about it?”

It’s easier for Mick to reply, “I was thinking about burning this place down,” than to explain.

“Hmm.” Nate yawns and throws a few sheets of scrunched up newspaper on the fire. “If you do, can you give me enough time to put my boots on first? I think it’s going to snow before dawn and I don’t want Gideon to have to undo frostbite.”

Mick watches the flames consume the newspaper. “I won’t burn it down. I don’t want to.” _That’s the problem_ doesn’t even make sense to him. “I used to want to burn things and, when it was all over, I hated what I’d done. And then I’d do it again.”

And again, and again. Every single time, after the obsession had been burned out by the satisfaction of the fire, the guilt had come. The disgust. His parents’ house. The house where one of the kids at school had lived. The apartment where he’d been staying after leaving his uncle’s place. More and more, they’d all blurred together so long ago. Even setting fires on purpose, before his fixation even had time to develop, hadn’t stopped it. Even the heat gun hadn’t stopped it.

Mick picks up a fistful of the balls of paper and throws it on to the fire. The flames leap up quickly enough that he sees Nate jerk back out of the corner of his eye. He doesn’t stay by the fire long enough to watch it grow. He goes back to his spot on the other ugly couch.

“Go back to sleep, Pretty.”


End file.
